This is my neighbor's house. Too much remodeling for us to do and the floor plan isn't our thing, which is why we took a pass. Will be interesting to see if it will command this price; I think it's overpriced, but people love our neighborhood and the school district we're in. Market is really hot in general. Not much inventory available. Interest rates are low, too.

We have lots of good memories spending time with Mary here....it's more than a bit sad....

https://www.realtor.com/reales...M78295-05341?view=qv

Wow! That house is in beautiful shape!

My guess is that you are not a fan of the wallpaper (easy fix) and the galley kitchen (not so easy)?

[Edit]: I see there is a dehumidifier in the basement. When we were looking in Ohio I saw several of these and wondered if it was a sign there was a drainage problem or something. My kids don't have one in their basement, although they do have a sump pump.

Are basement dehumidifiers common in your area? Do they run all the time?

That is a very nice house. But yes, the wallpaper is too fussy for me, and I didn't count, but that's a lot of rooms with wallpaper to deal with.

I wouldn't be worried by just the presence of a dehumidifier though.

Oooh, I just looked at the bungalow on the previous page, very nice! I like the colors inside, the windows etc., lots to like about that one!

Tell them to leave the piano and the treadmill :grin:

Yes, it's been very well maintained. Those are 1960 vintage Andersen windows (only one pane of glass, no thermopane) with newer storms/screens. Original front and back doors. I've been in the house in the dead of winter and there are zero drafts. But I would miss my 30 year old Andersens (same design they are still making) that are so easy to open/close and also to clean. The old ones are a pain.

Not a fan of the parquet floor in the front hall in kitchen, though it works OK with the rest of the oak flooring in the house.

All the window treatments would need to go. Not a fan of drapes and curtains.

We wouldn't even mind the galley kitchen all that much. Take out the soffits and put in 42" cabs and there'd be a lot more storage though still not a lot. Reasonable counter space. Eating area enough for us.

That door off the kitchen eating area goes to the side of the house, not the back. Which means to get to the backyard and patio you're walking all the way around the house. It's pretty sunny back there, too. I'd really miss my shade and three season room. Not much of a patio or deck person anymore. Too many skeeters and yellow jackets.

The bedrooms are tiny. Pretty much only handle a full or queen bed and two nightstands; only one of the four bedrooms comfortably handles a dresser or chest. A consideration if you look to the future when a walker might be in use and you need more maneuvering room.

Baths...If you look carefully, you can see that the counter in the hall bath is cut at an angle so the door can open. I think there's space to convert it to a pocket door. Not walker friendly.

The master bath (the green one) door also needs to be a pocket. The shower is behind the door, another really tight fit and not senior-friendly.

(yea, yea, I know....the current owner is 95, but she's not your ordinary 95 year old.....)

Would also have to find space to move laundry from basement. We actually figured out how we could do that, but again, it's another project.

Front stoop needs work; concrete is cracked in half and sunk. I would actually rework the front porch to do a covered porch. That side of the house bakes in the summer. The roof is between 15 and 20 years old, so getting up there in age, though that would be done when the front porch rework happened.

Bottom line is, a lot of folks could just move in and live there happily, but we're a couple of fussy old codgers and we would want to make a lot of changes.

Going through this exercise made us re-look at our house and what we can do to make it more senior friendly. We think we can overcome its deficiencies in that regard with way less trouble than taking on a whole new house.

I love doing this kind of planning.....

People around here run dehumidifiers in basements all the time. Not necessarily a sign of a problem.

Typically you run them during the summer and turn them off during the winter. It gets so dry when it's cold that everyone has a whole house humidifier on the HVAC (forced air systems, at any rate).

Her basement is dry as a bone, no seepage from the floor/wall joint and there are no cracks in her foundation. That's actually unusual and she could probably not run a dehumidifier at all; in fact, I think she only got it a few years ago on a whim. Her basement never felt particular damp and certainly never smelled musty. Both we and the neighbor (whose house is in between our house and Mary's) had to put in drainage systems in the basement because we always had water coming in at the floor after significant rain events. I'm guessing that Joe's house and ours have collapsed outside drain tile. Mary's outside drain tile seems to handle the water just fine.

quote:

Bottom line is, a lot of folks could just move in and live there happily, but we're a couple of fussy old codgers and we would want to make a lot of changes.

That makes sense of course. And the way you list it up, that's a lot or work!

quote:

Going through this exercise made us re-look at our house and what we can do to make it more senior friendly. We think we can overcome its deficiencies in that regard with way less trouble than taking on a whole new house.

There's definitely something to be said for that.

quote:

I love doing this kind of planning.....

And you're good at it!

I LOVE the bungalow! It has a clipped gable just like mine. The only issue, and my own has the same..is all the beautiful original woodwork is painted.

It would be such and expense for me to strip it all, and with lots of 1960's add on's I am sure the effort is not worth it for me..so I am embracing it.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
Somebody else might try to renovate that house but I wouldn't touch it. In fact I am not even sure I'd go in it.

Way too much mold, who knows what kind, and plenty of rot in the walls/ceilings as well.

[edit] Yikes! Did you see the taxes? $23K in 2018!

Whoa.

Don't know if anyone remembers this house. The wallpaper was falling down because everything was wet and there was black mold all over the place. Steve commented that he wouldn't touch the place no matter what; I absolutely agree.

It popped up on the market again. It was listed for $250K last year and sold for $280K in September. It shows that it sold again in June for $400K and is listed for sale again at $465K. As-is.

Here's what it looks like now:

https://www.realtor.com/reales...L_60005_M77616-97924

What a disaster. I'd love to know the backstory.

Realtor probably could have cropped out the dehumidifier from that photo.

That back patio is scary...has it own water supply from that downspout..and a wall to keep it all in ..maybe it is really a wading pool?

Meanwhile, in the suburbs of amazonland, the house across the street from me just listed for $3,975,000. It had a firm offer in two or three days. I will not be surprised if the offer was well over asking.

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:
Don't know if anyone remembers this house. The wallpaper was falling down because everything was wet and there was black mold all over the place. Steve commented that he wouldn't touch the place no matter what; I absolutely agree.

It popped up on the market again. It was listed for $250K last year and sold for $280K in September. It shows that it sold again in June for $400K and is listed for sale again at $465K. As-is.

Here's what it looks like now:

https://www.realtor.com/reales...L_60005_M77616-97924

What a disaster. I'd love to know the backstory.

Looking at the value of other houses in the neighborhood, that house could be a good deal at the price. The key will be making sure that the mold abatement has been performed correctly as the rest of it looks to be in pretty good shape. You'd have to have cash as no one is going to loan on it in that condition.

The fact they have not replaced the roof is a red flag, as is the dehumidifier.

Fascinating to look at the gutted photos. (Id forgotten about the thread, but thought I’d recognized the house, then remembered the ornate dining room(or whatever that is) somebody probably bought it, figured they could do the gutting themselves and hope to make 200K for their efforts? (Or maybe realized what a disaster it really was and are trying to get rid of it)

That part of town has the most expensive houses in my town and is considered very desirable. Winding roads, lots of mature trees, no sidewalks, no cookie cutter architecture, and big lots.

Scarsdale and Scarsdale Estates.

The subject house is in Scarsdale Estates, which is mostly ranches on half acre lots. Some of the homes have had major renovations and others have been torn down and replaced with McMansions.

As Steve discovered the neighborhood supports a much higher price point than the asking price for this house; there's a house on Rockwell that is in the Estates area that's a good example of what a renovated SE ranch might look like:

https://www.zillow.com/homedet...60005/80837433_zpid/

Other houses in Scarsdale Estates are over a million.

The price history on the mold house shows they started trying to sell it for almost $700K and finally ended up at $250K asking but managed to eke out $280K somehow. Those price histories aren't always accurate, but if this one is, it was sold again for $400K and now it's up for sale for $465K and it's as-is.

Flippers around here know the market, and the fact that no one is taking on the project, especially at the original $280K purchase price, tells me there has to be something super wrong going on.